When the Portuguese arrived in Taiwan, they were stunned by the beauty of the island and so named it Beautiful Island or Formosa in their native tongue. While the Beautiful Island (Taiwan) only encompasses a total landmass of approximately 36,000 square kilometers (394km long and 144km wide), a majority of the island's land area consists of high mountains, forests, hills and terraces, coastal plains and never-ending shorelines. With selling points like this, it’s a no brainer that Taiwan is a paradise for recreational camping and tourism-related activities. upload/blog/20140304/Recreational_Camping_in_Taiwan/
Visitors typically associate Taipei with the hustle and bustle of cars, motorcycles and commuters crisscrossing the busy and often traffic jammed city. Nestled right in the heart of the city, not far from old Taipei’s business center, is a little known crown jewel called the Hua Zhung Campsite. This amazing campsite is located at the end of Wan-Da Road right in Wan Hua District's Hua Zhong Riverside Park. The centrally located city campsite has been running strong in Hua Zhong Riverside Park for over ten years. As a long-time resident of Taipei, I have to admit I’ve only recently stumbled upon it as I was riding my bike along the Xin Dian River's bike path. For me it was a great pleasure to find this, so wanted to share it with our readers.
When you first view the campsite, it seems as though it’s nothing more than an open parking lot with a lot of free space to park your car. After closer inspection, you soon realize that there is more to the eye than one would expect. Here in the middle of a large metropolitan area, is a campsite that incorporates all the pleasantries one would expect of a typical campsite: scenery, trees, grass and more.
According to campsite’s website, “Staying at Hua Zhung Campsite, you can enjoy nature, yet having all the modern conveniences”. This statement is very true as the campsite offers facilities and equipment for not only the novice, but also the experienced camper. Covering an enormous track of land, the site has enough space and facilities to pitch a lot of tents (up to 3,000), park camper vans, motorhomes and even trailers (caravans). Built out of old shipping containers, the toilets and showers facilities are clean and in great condition. They even offer hot water and toilet paper. The staff told me that Hua Zhung is the only park in all of Taipei City that allows for open pit fires (prepare your marshmallows for roasting).
Since the campsite is located within the city limits, it is also a great jumping off point to access Taipei’s public buses and MRT stations. If you’re biking your way around Taiwan, then the campsite is an even better location. The site is right along the Xin Dian River bike lane, so connects directly into Taipei’s network of bike paths crisscrossing the city.
While this post focuses primarily on Taipei’s Hua Zhung Campsite, Taiwan also offers many other top notch private and public places for camping. It is beyond the scope of this post to try and cover all of the locations, so we have put together some hopefully useful information on the camping scene in Taiwan.

On a side note, the Hua Zhung Campsite will be hosting the FICC (Federation of International Camping and Caravanning) 17th Annual Asia Pacific Rally from October 9, 2014 to October 13, 2014. For more information, visit: http://en.camp.org.tw/17thaprficc.php.

The Hua Zhung Campsite is a great place within easy reach, but still green enough to make you feel like you are away from the hustle and bustle of Taipei City. Go camping and enjoy an alternative view of Taipei.

Reference Price List
A few items were selected from the Hua Zhung Campsite website for this article (posted February 2014). For a full list of services, equipment and the most updated price list, log onto to their website to check things out directly: website http://en.camp.org.tw/online.php